I've appreciated reading other's thoughts and experiences before our trip so i wanted to write a little bit about our experiences and opinions.
My sister, cousin and I tacked on an evening and full day on to a trip from the US to Europe to visit relatives and friends. This was our first trip to Disneyland Paris although we have all been to Disney World and Disneyland in the States on quite a few occasions.
The original idea was to stay off-site and use francillien tickets. We knew that we wouldn't arrive until late afternoon on the first day, but as this might be the only opportunity to visit for some time it was worth it to us to have a two day hoppers even if we would only use the first day ticket for a few hours. I kept looking at the various Disney websites for different countries until a promotion came up that worked well for us. On France autres régions we got 1 night at the Hotel Sante Fe for 3 with hopper tickets for all of us for 376.39 Euros.
Just to explain a bit more, there are two aspects that are confusing for Americans used to Disneyworld. It is currently difficult or impossible to get a Disney hotel without park tickets. When you get a Disney hotel it includes hopper tickets for each night of your stay +1, so we got 2 days with a 1 night stay.
The other pro tip is that the website is set up for quite a few different countries and languages, and the offers are different on each one. The ones I checked most frequently were France autres régions and Ireland. The US site was obscenely expensive, perhaps as much as double some of the other sites. The UK site also seemed relatively expensive but had some interesting packages including food that wasn't available on the France autres régions site. Offers come and go, so checking over a period of time is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with buying a package on another country's site than your own. Ordering on the France site means everything is in French; I didn't find it particularly difficult with my two semesters of French and google translate. It does take a bit of courage though. At check-in the cast member complimented me on having used the French site and there were no problems at all. I've also heard of people having difficulties with their American credit card going through on another country's site but we did not have that problem.
We approached by rental car and had no difficulties finding our way. The are plenty of signs but the layout seems strange. We checked in to get our tickets and then drove to the park. Driving to the park is not something I would advise. First, there are really no roads from the hotels to the park. You pretty much have to leave the property and come back on to get to the parks. It is well signed but takes far longer than you would expect. By the time we had arrived many folks had left for the day to we parked in literally the first row. Nevertheless the walk from the lot to the parks seemed eternal. On the second day we walked from the hotel and found the walk pleasant. There are also shuttle buses.
The Hotel Sante Fe looked fantastic at night. During the day it looked like a prison. The themeing just didn't sing for us in daylight, even compared to the All-Stars. Our room was extremely close to our car, and the room was larger than I expected for Europe (but not large by any means). The mattress was very thin and hard. This is not unusual for lowish-end hotels in Europe, but might come as a rude surprise for many Americans. Amenities included a bar and a buffet restaurant. The bar was large and also served some vaguely Southwest food. I didn't have any, but others in my party did and liked it (although very expensive). We didn't eat at the buffet but the same space was where the included breakfast was served. Breakfast was pretty much the lamest continental breakfast you can imagine. Mountains of rolls were in baskets along with cheese and a few meats. It was a crying shame that in France the cheeses consisted of Cheddar and Gouda. The Gouda was fine but the cheddar wasn't very good. Some nice French cheeses woudl have been nice. Drink machines served coffee, tea and juices. That was about it. The quality was mediocre at best but it did the job. There was free Wi-fi in the lobby but you had to pay for wired Internet in the rooms. I had a work crisis come up so I spent quite a bit of time in the lobby using the Wi-fi. I had actually tried buying the wired internet but the form failed and said my room wasn't authorized for the charge. I didn't pursue it and just went to the lobby. The speed was the best by far I had on the trip, a good American hotel standard.
It took about 20-25 minutes to walk to the parks. The walk was nice, following a canal for a while and going through the property of some of the other hotels. The more expensive hotels looked better but missing the detail of the Florida hotels. We did not go inside any of them.
Disneyland Park (the Magic Kingdom-like park) is really large for the number of attractions. It is quite pretty and there is a lot of detail, but in many parts of the park it feels like you have to walk quite a ways to get to the next attraction. The overall number of attractions feels light to me. We really enjoyed Space Mountain (much wilder than the US versions), Pirates and the Haunted mansion. Dreams, the nighttime show was exceptional.
I enjoyed the studios much more than I expected. Cinemagique and Ratatouille were exceptional. Crush's coaster had either longish lines or was broken so I didn't make it, although the spinning looks like it probably would have kicked my rear end. Probably a good thing I didn't ride it. Some of the rides are US copies, but they are good copies. All in all I enjoyed the shows and the rides, and everything was very close together.
Sadly, broken rides were a theme. At one point Crush, Ratatouille and the flying carpets were broken, and another time Pirates was down. That was a lot of star-power closed.
Employees ranged from fantastic to utterly indifferent. The best ones were really friendly and fun but the worst ones really put a damper on the experience. The worst 5 Disney employees I have ever run into were all at Paris. Boo.
The biggest negative was the price for food. An ala carte burger was 10 Euros. that is simply shameless. The food was ok but nothing to write home about. We didn't eat at a sit-down place, but prices looked to be about 25 Euros and up. On the night we left we had an excellent meal at an Italian restaurant off-property in Val d'Europe for less than 15 Euros which was a far better deal.
Overall we had a lot of fun and were very glad we made the time and took the hassle to get there. However, we feel a bit like we have checked it off our list as opposed to looking forward to our next visit. I probably won't go back even if in Europe again unless/until they have a bunch more new and unique rides.
If we were to do it again we'd almost certainly stay in Val d'Europe. This was a happening place the evening we were there, a much better vibe than the Disney Village with much better prices.
So in summary we had fun but aren't looking forward to the next visit.
My sister, cousin and I tacked on an evening and full day on to a trip from the US to Europe to visit relatives and friends. This was our first trip to Disneyland Paris although we have all been to Disney World and Disneyland in the States on quite a few occasions.
The original idea was to stay off-site and use francillien tickets. We knew that we wouldn't arrive until late afternoon on the first day, but as this might be the only opportunity to visit for some time it was worth it to us to have a two day hoppers even if we would only use the first day ticket for a few hours. I kept looking at the various Disney websites for different countries until a promotion came up that worked well for us. On France autres régions we got 1 night at the Hotel Sante Fe for 3 with hopper tickets for all of us for 376.39 Euros.
Just to explain a bit more, there are two aspects that are confusing for Americans used to Disneyworld. It is currently difficult or impossible to get a Disney hotel without park tickets. When you get a Disney hotel it includes hopper tickets for each night of your stay +1, so we got 2 days with a 1 night stay.
The other pro tip is that the website is set up for quite a few different countries and languages, and the offers are different on each one. The ones I checked most frequently were France autres régions and Ireland. The US site was obscenely expensive, perhaps as much as double some of the other sites. The UK site also seemed relatively expensive but had some interesting packages including food that wasn't available on the France autres régions site. Offers come and go, so checking over a period of time is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with buying a package on another country's site than your own. Ordering on the France site means everything is in French; I didn't find it particularly difficult with my two semesters of French and google translate. It does take a bit of courage though. At check-in the cast member complimented me on having used the French site and there were no problems at all. I've also heard of people having difficulties with their American credit card going through on another country's site but we did not have that problem.
We approached by rental car and had no difficulties finding our way. The are plenty of signs but the layout seems strange. We checked in to get our tickets and then drove to the park. Driving to the park is not something I would advise. First, there are really no roads from the hotels to the park. You pretty much have to leave the property and come back on to get to the parks. It is well signed but takes far longer than you would expect. By the time we had arrived many folks had left for the day to we parked in literally the first row. Nevertheless the walk from the lot to the parks seemed eternal. On the second day we walked from the hotel and found the walk pleasant. There are also shuttle buses.
The Hotel Sante Fe looked fantastic at night. During the day it looked like a prison. The themeing just didn't sing for us in daylight, even compared to the All-Stars. Our room was extremely close to our car, and the room was larger than I expected for Europe (but not large by any means). The mattress was very thin and hard. This is not unusual for lowish-end hotels in Europe, but might come as a rude surprise for many Americans. Amenities included a bar and a buffet restaurant. The bar was large and also served some vaguely Southwest food. I didn't have any, but others in my party did and liked it (although very expensive). We didn't eat at the buffet but the same space was where the included breakfast was served. Breakfast was pretty much the lamest continental breakfast you can imagine. Mountains of rolls were in baskets along with cheese and a few meats. It was a crying shame that in France the cheeses consisted of Cheddar and Gouda. The Gouda was fine but the cheddar wasn't very good. Some nice French cheeses woudl have been nice. Drink machines served coffee, tea and juices. That was about it. The quality was mediocre at best but it did the job. There was free Wi-fi in the lobby but you had to pay for wired Internet in the rooms. I had a work crisis come up so I spent quite a bit of time in the lobby using the Wi-fi. I had actually tried buying the wired internet but the form failed and said my room wasn't authorized for the charge. I didn't pursue it and just went to the lobby. The speed was the best by far I had on the trip, a good American hotel standard.
It took about 20-25 minutes to walk to the parks. The walk was nice, following a canal for a while and going through the property of some of the other hotels. The more expensive hotels looked better but missing the detail of the Florida hotels. We did not go inside any of them.
Disneyland Park (the Magic Kingdom-like park) is really large for the number of attractions. It is quite pretty and there is a lot of detail, but in many parts of the park it feels like you have to walk quite a ways to get to the next attraction. The overall number of attractions feels light to me. We really enjoyed Space Mountain (much wilder than the US versions), Pirates and the Haunted mansion. Dreams, the nighttime show was exceptional.
I enjoyed the studios much more than I expected. Cinemagique and Ratatouille were exceptional. Crush's coaster had either longish lines or was broken so I didn't make it, although the spinning looks like it probably would have kicked my rear end. Probably a good thing I didn't ride it. Some of the rides are US copies, but they are good copies. All in all I enjoyed the shows and the rides, and everything was very close together.
Sadly, broken rides were a theme. At one point Crush, Ratatouille and the flying carpets were broken, and another time Pirates was down. That was a lot of star-power closed.
Employees ranged from fantastic to utterly indifferent. The best ones were really friendly and fun but the worst ones really put a damper on the experience. The worst 5 Disney employees I have ever run into were all at Paris. Boo.
The biggest negative was the price for food. An ala carte burger was 10 Euros. that is simply shameless. The food was ok but nothing to write home about. We didn't eat at a sit-down place, but prices looked to be about 25 Euros and up. On the night we left we had an excellent meal at an Italian restaurant off-property in Val d'Europe for less than 15 Euros which was a far better deal.
Overall we had a lot of fun and were very glad we made the time and took the hassle to get there. However, we feel a bit like we have checked it off our list as opposed to looking forward to our next visit. I probably won't go back even if in Europe again unless/until they have a bunch more new and unique rides.
If we were to do it again we'd almost certainly stay in Val d'Europe. This was a happening place the evening we were there, a much better vibe than the Disney Village with much better prices.
So in summary we had fun but aren't looking forward to the next visit.
We always make sure we do sit down meals now as it's not really that much more. 
though now I take my Disney fun at HKDL which I also love 
